Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the number one most-wanted fugitive for nearly
a decade, was killed in Pakistan Sunday, the White House announced.

President Barack Obama made a live statement shortly after 11:30 p.m. from
the East Room of the White House.

"Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the
United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader
of al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands
of innocent men, women, and children," he began.

The U.S. received an intelligence lead last August about bin Laden's whereabouts,
Obama said, and that he had enough information by Sunday to launch a targeted
military operation on the compound pinpointed as bin Laden's location, in Abbottabad,
Pakistan.

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary
courage and capability," Obama said. "No Americans were harmed. They
took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama
bin Laden and took custody of his body."

White House officials said that the operation was in cooperation with Pakistani
authorities, and was carried out by Navy SEALs in helicopters who rehearsed
the operation to avoid civilian casualties. Reportedly, one woman who was used
as a human shield was killed.

Crowds gathered outside the White House and around the country after the speech,
waving flags and singing the National Anthem. U.S. diplomatic centers are reportedly
on high alert in case of retaliation.

Obama stressed that the decade-long War on Terror has never been a war on Islam.
He thanked intelligence officials and counterterrorism professionals for their
work over the years.

"Americans understand the costs of war," Obama said. "Yet as
a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly
by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our
citizens and our friends and allies. We will be true to the values that make
us who we are. And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who
have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda's terror: justice has been done."

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. official says Osama bin Laden has been buried at sea.

After bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan, senior administration
officials said the body would be handled according to Islamic practice and tradition.
That practice calls for the body to be buried within 24 hours, the official
said. Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted
terrorist would have been difficult, the official said. So the U.S. decided
to bury him at sea.

The official, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive
national security matters, did not immediately say where that occurred.

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication,
the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended
the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would
never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead,"
the source said.

Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication
and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora
mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his
last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.

About 30 close associates of bin Laden in Al Qaeda, including his most trusted
and personal bodyguards, his family members and some "Taliban friends,"
attended the funeral rites. A volley of bullets was also fired to pay final
tribute to the "great leader."

The Taliban source who claims to have seen bin Laden's face before burial said
"he looked pale ... but calm, relaxed and confident."

Asked whether bin Laden had any feelings of remorse before death, the source
vehemently said "no." Instead, he said, bin Laden was proud that he
succeeded in his mission of igniting awareness amongst Muslims about hegemonistic
designs and conspiracies of "pagans" against Islam. Bin Laden, he
said, held the view that the sacrifice of a few hundred people in Afghanistan
was nothing, as those who laid their lives in creating an atmosphere of resistance
will be adequately rewarded by Almighty Allah.

When asked where bin Laden was buried, the source said, "I am sure that
like other places in Tora Bora, that particular place too must have vanished."

Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for
treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent,
according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.

The disclosures are known to come from French intelligence which is keen to
reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending
the war to Iraq and elsewhere.

Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in Pakistan
with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the
urology department. While there he was visited by several members of his family
and Saudi personalities, and the CIA.

The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later,
it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington
soon afterwards.

Intelligence sources say that another CIA agent was also present; and that
Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence,
who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. Soon afterwards Turki
resigned, and more recently he has publicly attacked him in an open letter:
"You are a rotten seed, like the son of Noah".

The American hospital in Dubai emphatically denied that Bin Laden was a patient
there.

Washington last night also denied the story.

Private planes owned by rich princes in the Gulf fly frequently between Quetta
and the Emirates, often on luxurious "hunting trips" in territories
sympathetic to Bin Laden. Other sources confirm that these hunting trips have
provided opportunities for Saudi contacts with the Taliban and terrorists, since
they first began in 1994.

Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim
that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more
years.

According to Le Figaro, last year he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be
delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan.

Whether the allegations about the Dubai meeting are confirmed or not, the wider
leaks from the French secret service throw a worrying light on the rivalries
and lack of coordination between intelligence agencies, both within the US and
between western allies.

A familiar complaint of French intelligence is that collaboration with the
Americans has been essentially one-way, with them happy to receive information
while giving little in return.

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